Category Archives: Biometrics

A database in a British museum to scan children for defects. More surveillance of people’s faces and get them used to Orweillean level monitoring. While the purpose sounds noble, its 3D face software. Six images of the camera. It allows them to spin around the image. This is a disturbing associated press story.

In case for you unfortunate souls who did not know there is a big difference in its DSL service – U-Verse. I spent quite a bit of time learning some of the ins and outs of this technology on Sunday. U-verse itself is now more geared towards business to where it wasn’t before. It was originally going to be for the home user. U-verse delivers a lot of internet service for the business dollar. Its a nice change for AT&T. It only takes 3-4 different times to get connected someone who can truly help with questions but oh god don’t owe them anything or they sound like they are bringing the wrath of God down on you over 1 penny. A lot of businesses turn off the charm if their customer is late paying no matter the circumstances.

U-Verse technology does not require any type of email filtering on the server or firewall side of the equation anymore. U-verse gives more control to the business user over their peace of cyberspace. It really is quite fluid. For those of you hosting your own email, you’ll really like the extra power that gives you to keep your end users happy especially in MS Exchange environment. Granted this particular environment I’m writing about is Exchange 2007. Exchange 2010 grants the server administrator even more power across the small business domain.

U_verse I’m not exactly singing its praises or offering animals as a way to appease the angry email gods but it is an improvement for small business commerical internet services. If AT&T stays on this track, maybe they will improve over the phone support. Nah!!! Just kidding.

If you have no interest in doing email chores on your server, you may want to consider smart hosting your email with an ISP or another outside service. These service have high available and good network security to filter outspam and add an extra layer of security. In today’s world of hacker or annoying spambots this can be an invaluable add on service for yourself or your customer.

Smarthosting is a flexible solution to small business email administration. The great news is that its completely optional. Just beware of any DNS changes that need to be on the MX record. You want to make sure the outside world finds you and your organization.

On a final AT&T note when you go from plain business DSL to U-Verse there is a filtering process that needs to be shut off for email on your email server. If you don’t turn off the filter boy it makes all emails undeliverable. It will hit the AT&T network and just hang. Remember to turn those filters off on your email server and firewall (if applicable) to ensure prompt, courteous delivery of emails. Until email is done away with completely I think issues like these will be around for another 5-10 years. The 2020 decade should be like night and day as far as internet communications are today. I study the Transhumanist movement quite a bit. That movement appears to be getting its way; more and more into mainstream society. Can you imagine by though alone sending an email across the internet with all of the current gobbly gook of wireless, routers, ports, and post offices? It will be incredible but then again if you watch the movie Johnny Mnemonic with Keenau Reeves it kind makes you wonder will our emails travel when we jack into the internet by an implant at the base of our brains? You may laugh now but you may not be laughing in 6-8 years. Maybe we have been living in the Matrix all along and email proves that this is just another form of alternate reality we can’t wake up from?

Over the past few months, I have written several articles
dealing with the coming cashless society and the developing technological control grid. I also have written about the surge of government attempts to gain access to and force the use of biometric data for the purposes of identification, tracking, tracing, and surveillance.

Unfortunately, the reactions I receive from the general public are almost always the same. While some recognize the danger, most simply deny that governments have the capability or even the desire to create a system in which the population is constantly monitored by virtue of their most private and even biological information. Others, either gripped by apathy or ignorance, cannot believe that the gadgets given to them from the massive tech corporations are designed for anything other than their entertainment and enjoyment.

However, current events in India should serve not just as a warning, but also as a foreshadowing of the events to come in the Western world, specifically the United States.

Recently, India has launched a nationwide program involving the allocation of a Unique Identification Number (UID) to every single one of its 1.2 billion residents. Each of the numbers will be tied to the biometric data of the recipient using three different forms of information – fingerprints, iris scans, and pictures of the face. All ten digits of the hand will be recorded, and both eyes will be scanned.

The project will be directed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under the premise of preventing identity theft and social welfare fraud. India has rather extensive social welfare and safety net programs, ranging from medical support and heating assistance to others aimed at helping the poor. Fraud is a rampant problem in India, especially in relation to these programs due to a preponderance of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats who often stuff welfare rolls with fake names and take the money for themselves.

Yet, although the justification for the billion person database is the increased ability to accurately disperse social welfare benefits, it will not be just the Indian government’s social welfare programs that have access to and utilize the UIDAI. Indeed, even before the program has been completed, major banks, state/local governments, and other institutions are planning to use the UIDAI for identification verification purposes and, of course, payment and accessibility.

Yet the UID is going to be used for much more than social welfare programs. The UIDAI is in discussion with many institutions (banks, local/state governments, etc.) to allow them to use the UID as a means of identity verification. These institutions will pay the UIDAI some fee to cover costs and generate revenue. There seems to be little doubt that once it is established, the UID will become a preferred method (if not the preferred method) of identification in India.

Saenz also sees the eventuality of the UIDAI program becoming a means of payment and accessibility. He continues:

Ultimately, I wouldn’t be surprised if the UID, with its biometric data, could be used as a means of payment (when linked to a bank account), or as an access key to homes and cars. Purchase a meal with your fingerprint and unlock your door with the twinkle in your eye. Similar results could be expected in other nations that adopted biometric identification systems.

Saenz, and other proponents of the UID (UIDAI), have been diligent in pointing out that the program “is just a number, not an ID card.” However, this claim is debatable. Saenz himself admits that State issued driver’s licenses and identification cards will reference the UID information.

The question then becomes how much of that information will be referenced, and how that will be accomplished? Will the information be included on the card? Will only part of the information be included on the card? Or will the card reference back to the digital UID information to be then reconciled with the information that is present on the card? Although the UID is obviously going to be utilized by other institutions outside of the social welfare programs, no answers to these questions have been provided.

But, in the end, does it really matter if the information is collated into an ID card format if the government already has access to that information digitally? More than likely, a national ID card will appear as a supplement to the database already created by UID. Regardless, the private biometric information has still been taken from the individual. The database is still there.

Indeed, government “officials” have already stated that the database will be used by intelligence agencies for the purpose of monitoring “bank transactions, cellphone purchases and the movements of individuals and groups suspected of fomenting terrorism.” This will be very easy to do since the UID number will be entered anytime an individual “accesses services from government departments, driver’s license offices and hospitals, as well as insurance, telecom, and banking companies.”

Nevertheless, proponents have also touted the fact that, at this point, the UID program is optional. But the program will obviously not be optional for very long. As I have discussed in previous articles, the introduction of a program such as a national ID card, biometric data, or cashless payment technologies is always followed by the program becoming mandatory. The ultimate goal of an all-encompassing cashless surveillance program with no opt-out provisions is always introduced by stealth and the Gradualist Technique.

At first, the program is introduced as a way to speed up transactions, increase efficiency, and provide convenience. Soon, however, governments and businesses begin to transition out of the older methods of payment and identification and focus more on the new technology. Identification using the traditional methods remain as an option, but become viewed as cumbersome. Eventually, the alternative methods are phased out completely and mandates replace what was once a personal choice.

As soon as Indian banks, businesses, and government social service offices begin to require identification using the UID, the ability to remain off the system and lead what passes for a normal life will disappear.

This is exactly the intention with India’s new biometric ID program. In fact, the cashless society is a stated goal of the UID program. CEO of MindTree’s IT Services, the company that was awarded the government contract for development and maintenance of the UID, explained in an interview with ComputerWeekly that the “ID scheme will support a cashless society. He said all vendors will have a biometric reader and citizens can pay for things with a fingerprint scan. Even a bag of rice.”

No doubt, even after such an admission by a man who was instrumental in the development of the program, many who read this article will still dismiss it as a “conspiracy theory.”

Only a totalitarian form of government would desire this information; and only a very determined totalitarian government would actively work toward establishing it. India is only the first nation to openly sweep up its entire national population into such a massive biometric database net. We cannot let our nation be the next.Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Mullins, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University where he earned the Pee Dee Electric Scholar’s Award as an undergraduate. He has had numerous articles published dealing with a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, and civil liberties. He also the author of Codex Alimentarius – The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies and Five Sense Solutions. Brandon Turbeville is available for podcast, radio, and TV interviews